


Nightmares

by accio_spaceman



Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Tatennant - Fandom
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-06
Updated: 2018-03-06
Packaged: 2019-03-27 16:15:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 693
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13884483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/accio_spaceman/pseuds/accio_spaceman
Summary: The Doctor's dreams are haunted by the ghosts of people he's loved. Donna offers him a shoulder.Inspired by the prompt:"You’re having nightmares again, aren’t you?”“… how did you know?”from @clean-prompts on Tumblr.





	Nightmares

Donna woke up feeling cold. Eyes still shut, she blindly reached for her personal source of warmth, frowning as her hands met thin air.

Cracking an eye open, she saw that the covers on the other side had been tossed in a messy tangle to the foot of bed, revealing the empty sheets underneath.

Frowning again, she flopped onto her back, awake but still needing a minute before she ventured upright, considering her empty bed.

For all his faults, The Doctor very rarely left anything in a mess, unless he was in a hurry. Why would he have been in a hurry to leave the bed? She knew there was only one reason he’d have fled so quickly. The answer weighed heavy on her heart.

Sighing, Donna scrubbed her hands over her face before swinging her legs into her waiting slippers, propelling herself upwards. After a quick stop to use the facilities, she shuffled down the corridor to the console room, where she paused a moment in the doorway to watch the forlorn figure inside.

The Doctor was slouched on the seat by the console, radiating an air of defeat as he fiddled absently with his sonic.

His head twitched to the side as Donna moved to hug him from behind - not looking at her, exactly, but enough to show that he knew she was there.

After a couple of minutes of simply rubbing her hands soothingly across his chest, Donna sought to confirm what she already knew.

“You’re having nightmares again, aren’t you?”

Silence.

“…how did you know?”

Donna grimaced slightly; it must have been bad if he wasn’t even attempting to deny it.

“You weren’t in bed.” She replied.

More silence.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

The Doctor shook his head vigorously, then sighed heavily, the tension suddenly leaving his body as he choked out a single word.

“Jenny.”

Donna closed her eyes as her own grief washed over her. How could she even begin to comfort him?

She squeezed him tight before loosening her hug to walk round to face him, kneeling down in front of him and ignoring the grating that bit into her knees as she did so.

She took his hands gently between her own.

“Doctor?”

She waited for him to meet her eyes, swallowing hard as she saw the raw emotion swirling within them.

“It’s not your fault.”

The Doctor didn’t reply verbally, but Donna read the desperation for reassurance clearly enough.

“It’s not.” She said again, stronger, squeezing his hands for emphasis.

His shoulders let out a little more tension as Donna simply gazed at him for a moment, willing him to accept the truth of her words.

“She loved you, you know.” She offered a teary half smile.

“Too much.” The Doctor choked out.

“No!” Donna interjected firmly. “There’s no such thing as too much love. And you deserve it. So did she. What happened was… terrible, but it wasn’t because of either of you. Bad things happen every day, especially to us. But that doesn’t mean the good things are bad too; that they don’t count, or whatever. It means that we have to make the most of them. Remember them for what they were and look forward to the next one. We can’t change the past - well not our personal past anyway, so we keep moving. Make new memories. Remember those left behind, but live on their behalf; celebrate what was, rather than dwelling on what wasn’t.”

The Doctor stared at her a minute, tears spilling down his cheeks and the shaking of his shoulders and trembling of his lip the only movement from his otherwise paralysed form.

His head dropped and he nodded slowly, before raising his head to offer her a weak smile, which came off more as a grimace.

“Yeah.” He drawled, before sighing heavily and standing up, pulling her with him. “Come on, let’s get back to bed.”

“Yeah.” Donna agreed, keeping her hand is his as she turned back towards the corridor.

“Oh, and Donna?” He tugged her around to face him.

“Mm?”

“Thank you.” He caught her in a fierce hug.

“Anytime, Spaceman. Anytime.”


End file.
